Are you a blogger and wondering how you could monetize your site? Or maybe you’ve heard the term “affiliate marketing” when searching how to make money from home?
Does it sound scary and intimidating? Well, don’t let it. I’m here to help you understand affiliate marketing for the beginners. That’s you right?
Affiliate marketing can be one of the best ways to make a passive income from the comfort of your own home. Or anywhere really, as long as you have internet access.
And even though you’re a beginner, once you’ve learned the basics, you can become just as successful as anyone else.
If you’ve researched affiliate marketing online, you were probably overwhelmed with the amount of information out there. And many times they talk like you should already know the terminology and how it’s done.
That can be so frustrating when you’re new to this industry. This is why I want to talk about what newbies need to know, in this beginner’s guide.
Affiliate marketing can be amazing.
It’s something you should learn from the beginning of your blogging career so that you’re not having to go back and tweak all your articles when you learn something new.
Don’t think you have to wait until you’ve posted 50 blogs. Learn it now. You’ll be glad you did. If you want to know where I learned to create my own passive income, follow me here…
Oh, and this information isn’t just for bloggers, it’s for anyone wanting to learn how to make money online.
Contents
Let’s Start At The Beginning
First off, let’s define Affiliate Marketing. According to Entrepreneur, affiliate marketing is:
“A way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies (“affiliates”) who market the company’s products for a commission”
Simply put, affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s product or service on your blog, and when someone clicks on your affiliate links and purchases the product, you receive a commission for the sale.
In this picture, the Merchant is the company producing the product. You are the publisher or the affiliate. And the Customer is your visitor or reader of your blog. Everyone is satisfied in the end!
Is it that easy? YES!!
- You get to decide whose product you want to promote.
- You apply to be their affiliate.
- They give you your own personal ID tracking number.
- You promote their product on your blog or website and add the link.
- Your reader clicks on the link and buys the product.
- You get paid commission! Voila!!
There Must Be More To It Than That
Well, yes, there is. Initially, beginners have many questions. The most asked are:
How soon will I make money with affiliate marketing?
That’s a really hard question to answer.
Some marketers make money in just a few months, and others take longer. It all boils down to how hard you work at it.
Committed people who work at it every day will be rewarded much sooner.
How much can I make with affiliate marketing?
The sky’s the limit here.
There are successful marketers out there making hundreds to thousands per month.
Many have done so well, they quit their day job and do full-time online marketing instead.
How do I learn how to be an affiliate marketer?
There are many courses out there that can teach you what you need to know.
I’ll give you some guidance a little further down…..
What products do I promote?
Anything that is relevant to your readers.
If your blog or website is about cooking, then sell things of value to them like cooking utensils, cooking courses, even food products.
If you have a following that trusts you, they will trust the products you recommend.
How do I find these affiliate programs?
The simplest way is to use Google.
Enter the product you’d like to promote and add “+ affiliate program” after the item.
For example “KitchenAid + affiliate program”. Just leave out the quotations…
What Else Should I Know?
There are also things to consider that people will rarely tell a beginner affiliate:
- It takes dedication and hard work to gain authority in the eyes of Google. Without that authority, you won’t get ranked on page 1 or 2.
Without that ranking, people won’t find you (your traffic). If people don’t find you, they can’t buy your products.
- To have an online presence, you need a website, somewhere to host your website, tools to find your proper keywords, and support, lots of support.
- You won’t necessarily get accepted to all the affiliate programs you apply for.
You can’t put the cart before the horse. Meaning it’s not wise to apply for something when you haven’t set up an applicable website or blog.
Most companies want to see your website first.
- There are minimum affiliate payout thresholds.
Though most programs pay out your commissions as soon as you hit $50, you do need to have reached their threshold before they send you your money.
- Companies like Amazon are some of the biggest affiliate platforms out there, but you need to read all the
fine print or else you risk getting your account shut down.
Yes, that means you could lose your commissions too.
They have many rules you need to abide by, but I also know many people who have great success with them.
Are you still with me? If you are, then you must be seriously wanting to learn about affiliate marketing.
That’s great because I have good news for you…
Conclusion
If you want to be successful at affiliate marketing, then I highly recommend you learn where I did.
It’s called Wealthy Affiliate University, and it is truly the best platform online today.
You see, affiliate marketing isn’t just about getting affiliate links, slapping them up on your blogs and hoping people buy.
It’s so much more, and everything is explained here for you.
And you can for free. Really! No credit card needed.
I know how important this is to beginners. No one wants to pay hundreds of dollars for affiliate training only to find out they don’t enjoy it.
This is why they offer a free starter membership. You get in, look around, take some training and see what you think. Great eh?
This platform is owned and was built by two Canadian guys whose greatest desire is to help people become successful online.
Kyle and Carson, who started their online careers over 15 years ago, are adamant that people have access to the proper training and tools.
Proper education is fundamental.
Without the right training, you are wandering around in the dark, getting conflicting advice from different places online.
That just frustrates you to the point of throwing your hands up in the air and quitting.
I want to save you all the frustration.
Wealthy Affiliate has a fantastic training program with step by step, interactive lessons for beginners.
Here’s a bit of what they offer:
- Training – Step by step courses, classrooms, tutorials, and live weekly webinars.
- A domain registry – An easy way to find the perfect name for your business.
- A website builder – With over 4,000 WordPress themes to choose from.
- Website hosting – With powerful servers, security, backups, and emails, and more.
- A keyword research tool – Find low-competition keywords for the best ranking.
- A large and active LIVE community – They always have your back!
- And much more…
Here’s a video of Kyle, building a website inside Wealthy Affiliate.
Remember when I said you’d need support. This community is the only one of its kind on the internet.
It’s global, it’s live, and someone’s always available to answer any questions you may have, often within seconds.
It truly is the best way to learn affiliate marketing online.
So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose, it’s free! And everything to gain.
If you click on the image below, you can read all about Wealthy Affiliate. And when you join, I’ll be there to greet you and help you along for as long as you wish. See you soon!
So do you think you’d enjoy learning about affiliate marketing? It really is a lucrative industry, especially when you start off on the right foot!
If you any more questions or comments please leave them below, and I’ll get back to you.
Your friend
Suzanne
P.S. Please share!
I agree with you, wealthy affiliate seems like the only way to go out there!
Hey Savita, I agree! Wealthy affiliate gives you everything you need under one roof. So many successes originated with them.
Cheers,
Suzanne
Great post! I like that it eased some of my initial worries about starting out as an affiliate marketer.
Hi Camille,
I’m glad it helped. The nice thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that you can start, completely free, to see if you like it. There’s no risk to you at all. If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Cheers,
Suzanne
This is an awesome article. Anyone who wants to be an Affiliate Marketer can get the inspiration he needs from reading this article.
Wealthy Affiliate seems to be a good platform for training both Newbies and experienced individuals how to make money online.
Can one make money from the free program or is it better to upgrade?
Hi Luna and thanks for your comment. Yes, you can make money from the training in the free membership. It runs through all the basic necessities to get you up and running, and shows you what you need to do to keep it going. The advantage to the premium is the incredible library of videos, tutorial, and additional training that can get you reaching success much faster. That, and the incredible support that is available. It took me about 3 days to see the benefits LOL.
Cheers,
Suzanne